An Architect reached out to me today requesting services to prepare MEP specs for a Renovation to an existing building on the Homestead (Florida) Air Force Base. I advised Architect I would assist him with finding a spec writer for the project since I do not prepare MEP specs. Anyone interested?
make sure they also do SpecsIntact. Most Air Force work comes out of the USACE.
Is SpecsIntact still around? I though the government was slowly transitioning away from that archaic system.
SpecsIntact is very much around (unfortunately). We have major projects underway requiring it.
I have done SpecsIntact specs in the past, but since I am an architect, not the MEP divisions (although one could word-process them in SpecIntact from engineers’ marked-up masters if necessary). Yes, SpecsIntact is still around; the UFGS spec master it uses was updated May 12, 2016. Both the software and the master textbase are available free of charge for use on govenment projects; for info on the UFGS masters see https://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_cat.php?c=3; for the SpecsIntact software go to http://specsintact.ksc.nasa.gov/ Though SpecsIntact is not a bad system, its unique features (it’s a marked-up tagged text system, kinda like HTML or WordPerfect) can make the learning curve a little daunting. Last I heard (maybe 3 years ago), the Army still required SpecsIntact & UFGS for design-bid-build work, but for design-build, the d-b entity can use the spec system of its choice (which for me was BSD SpecLink). The other branches of service may have different policies. The biggest potential problem may not actually be the software, but the seemingly overly detailed requirements specified in the master text (you can see why a toilet seat might cost $600, as was once reported). From my experience, very few engineers want to go to the trouble of learning SpecIntact; at one time I compiled a 7-page “SI Tips” document to help them out (things I had learned from SI support and then wrote down before I forgot them). (I don’t know whether I kept a copy of it, or where it would be…)
I believe there used to be at least one SCIP member consultant who specialized in SpecsIntact (among other things). Don’t recall the name, but IIRC the location was in the South, perhaps in Mississippi or Louisiana.
Stephen Nash and Margaret Chewning are SI masters, but I doubt they do MEP specs.
Young Johnson is a specsintact user.
The SCIP website includes SpecsIntact as one of the search categories, and nine current SCIP members list SpecsIntact as a service.
SCIP website is SCIP.com . Here’s the member directory http://scip.com/members.aspx . You can search by Services.
I have edited MEP specs in SpecsIntact, but will only do them from an engineers markup for the technical information for the project. When I do this it is usually for projects that I’m preparing the front end.
Current workload is light at the moment, (on purpose as grandbaby and great grandpa are making my tailspin right now,) but am looking for projects in September and October.